Muslim Brotherhood splits up protests

Saturday

Aug 31, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2013 at 10:34 AM

CAIRO - Reeling from a fierce security crackdown, the Muslim Brotherhood brought out only scattered, small crowds yesterday in its latest protests of Egypt's military coup. • While the remnants of the Brotherhood's leadership still are able to exhibit strong coordination from underground, the arrests of thousands of its supporters and members - and the fear of more bloodshed - have weakened its ability to mobilize in the streets.

CAIRO — Reeling from a fierce security crackdown, the Muslim Brotherhood brought out only scattered, small crowds yesterday in its latest protests of Egypt’s military coup. • While the remnants of the Brotherhood’s leadership still are able to exhibit strong coordination from underground, the arrests of thousands of its supporters and members — and the fear of more bloodshed — have weakened its ability to mobilize in the streets.

The day’s largest single demonstration was a little more than 10,000 people outside the presidential palace in Cairo, with dozens of gatherings of about 100 protesters or fewer in multiple sites across the capital and in the provinces.

It was an intentional shift in tactics from a week ago, when the group failed to rally in a single location as a show of strength.

Security officials dubbed it the “butterfly plan” — a flurry of protests intended to distract them.

Rather than have protests converge in one square and encounter force from police and angry residents, the group appeared to have purposely planned hundreds of small marches as a way of continuing demonstrations and avoiding bloodshed, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Protest organizers also tried a bit of subterfuge: They said a rally would take place in Sphinx Square in Cairo, but after security forces barricaded the site with barbed wire, tanks and roadblocks, only a few hundred people demonstrated nearby, and the biggest crowd converged across town at the presidential palace.

Tens of thousands heeded the Brotherhood’s call for a day of “decisiveness,” in which the group urged people to “break your fear, break the coup.” They marched defiantly past tanks and armored vehicles in Cairo and other major cities.

More than 1,300 people, most of them Brotherhood supporters, have been killed since President Mohammed Morsi, a longtime leader in the group, was ousted in a popularly backed coup on July 3.

Violence peaked two weeks ago when security forces attacked two Brotherhood-led sit-ins, killing more than 600 people. More than 100 policemen and soldiers have been killed since the Aug. 14 raids. Police stations, government buildings and churches also have been attacked.

“When it started, it was only about the return of Morsi to power,” said 18-year-old protester Ahmed Osama, who says he lost friends in the recent violence and that his brother was shot. “Now it has gone past that. Blood has been shed.”

He said that despite the arrest of Brotherhood leaders, “We are still here.”

The Brotherhood has more than 80 years of experience operating as a banned organization. It was not until after the 2011 revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak that the group surfaced with its full might and created its own political party.

In another development, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson left Egypt after a little more than two years in the post, the State Department said. David Satterfield will be acting ambassador, taking a temporary leave from his post as director-general of the Sinai peacekeeping force.

Patterson had come under criticism from both Morsi supporters and opponents, which each accused the United States of supporting the other side in the political divide.

Cairo residents mostly stayed off the streets yesterday in anticipation of the Brotherhood rallies. A military-imposed nighttime curfew in Cairo and 13 other provinces started two hours earlier.

While largely peaceful, the protests yesterday spawned some sporadic violence in Cairo and elsewhere as angry residents confronted Brotherhood supporters. The group said seven people were killed nationwide; a government health official said only six died.